


Poppies and Starlight

by ThatwasJustaDream



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Community: 1_million_words, Fluff, M/M, Relationship(s), Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 07:52:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5120672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatwasJustaDream/pseuds/ThatwasJustaDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean needs a break. Time away from all the crap on their plates. Castiel's got that covered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Poppies and Starlight

“Good _lord,_ this is _wow_ ,” Dean said, eventually, adjusting the backpack on his shoulders. 

His voice was heavy with something that sounded suspiciously like awe.

Understandable, Castiel thought. This place _was_ breathtaking. He hadn’t had spent nearly enough time visiting it lately. Not since…well, since he’d been sent to Hell on an errand.

“I’m glad you approve,” he drew his eyes away from the blanket of stars beginning to appear in the sky to watch Dean – noting how much closer to relaxed Dean was already; his shoulders down, his face loose and observant and …so beautiful. “I came here many times when I needed to think. When I was figuring everything out.”

“Figuring what out, Cas?” 

“What to do with my existence. Where I belonged, and why I never... _fit_ anywhere.”

“You got an answer, yet?” Dean asked, giving him a hint of a glance before his eyes went back to the sky. “Where you fit?”

“I think you know,” Castiel held out a hand. “That I do. We should walk, and find a good place where it’s drier. It must have rained today, and sunset is close.” 

It was a sign of how blown-away Dean was by the scenery that he only nodded and took his hand, didn’t flinch or hesitate as he normally did at a physical gestures of bonding and affection.

“Where are we?” Dean asked as they walked, his free hand skimming along to touch and tug at the thigh-high poppy plants they were a thousand percent surrounded by. 

“Perhaps … you’ll enjoy it more if I don’t say? If we don’t put a name on it?”

“You know what?” Dean shrugged. “I think you might be right. Just tell me we’re on Earth. That you didn’t zap us to Heaven or something.”

“Oh, it’s Earth. Smell,” Castiel paused to kick at the field, and the rich scent of mud and mulch and flowers got thicker. “Heaven can’t replicate that scent; I’ve never understood why, but we can’t capture the fine points. It’s the life-force, here, I’m sure. Something even Father doesn’t fully understand about his creation.”

He picked Dean a poppy and they walked again, Dean sniffing it and then tucking it in the pocket of his jeans.

“I’ve never been anywhere so quiet,” Dean said, almost like he was saying it to himself. “It’s almost …scary.”

Castiel couldn’t not smile at that. Of course it was scary, silence. Freedom, and what to do with it?

The field in front of them was far from everywhere: Zero traffic or highway sounds, only faint insect hum and occasional bird tweets. The flowers went on as far as they could see, each plant surrounded by distinctive, skyward reaching green bulbs for endless acres.

In the minutes since their arrival (courtesy of Castiel’s iffy but healing angel mojo) the sunset had started turning the horizon orange. And the stars…oh, the stars were really starting to pop in the sky, which would be blue-black soon; so little light pollution, that they would have something few humans ever got anymore - a deep, dark, silent night.

“I think I like it here…” Dean said, stopping. “You good?”

“Absolutely. Give me the pack; I’ll do the honors.”

Castiel took the backpack as Dean shucked it off, pulling out the blankets they’d brought from the bunker. There was a thin tarp, too, in case it was raining. Castiel put his shoes on two corners, and Dean set his boots on the other two even though there wasn’t much of a wind to push them around. Just a light breeze – cool but not cold. 

And the stars; now so bright that their eyes were full of Milky Way. 

So perfect; just what they needed.

“Thank you, Cas.”

“Anytime,” Castiel said. 

~*~

It was rare – this opportunity for peace. But it was needed.

Dean hadn’t recovered from the Mark the way it seemed to Castiel he should; was still easily worn out and sometimes hard to rouse in the morning - like he was worn to the bone but trying to pretend he wasn’t.

Castiel was healing as well – and, he had to admit – recovering slowly, too.

“I sure could use a night away from it all,” Dean had said as they’d washed dishes in the bunker’s kitchen. “Somewhere so far away… I can’t even picture it.”

“I can do that,” Castiel had dropped the silverware he was rinsing from the wave of pleasure; the opportunity to grant him his wish. “I know a place….”

~*~

“Even for you, this …it must really be something?” Dean asked him.

Castiel had taken his coat off and fashioned it into a pillow; was touching the crown of Dean’s head lightly where it lay in his lap, both of them watching the sky darken.

“It _is_ amazing,” he said. “Much more beautiful now that I have a vessel. When I was formless I didn’t see the stars so much as joined with them, and….”

“Are you serious?” Dean practically sat up. “You were one with the stars, and now…”

Castiel pressed with his hand to ask him to stay put, but Dean rolled over to look up at him.

“Don’t feel bad for me,” Castiel said. “I’m better off for my decisions. I’m an autonomous being and….I _love_. I’m _capable_ of love.”

“They could come after you again,” Dean said. “They could hurt you, again, because of me.”

“Did you hear me, beregida?” Castiel ran a thumb over Dean’s eyebrow. “I have no regrets. And this conversation? It’s not what we came here for. It’s what we are escaping.”

“Fair enough,” Dean said, and Castiel felt him relax into his lap again. 

They were silent for some time, until Dean’s voice rumbled, startling in the silence.

“You should take Sammy on a day trip like this. You know? Somewhere. He could probably use it, too.”

“I’ll be glad to,” Castiel said. “But he’ll have to bring a pillow. He can’t have my lap.”

“He damn well better not…” Dean sank even closer. “Just so you know: He’ll probably want to go somewhere freaky, like the Sahara or something. Boy’s got a wild streak.”

They didn’t say much after that. Dean counted stars. Castiel did his own meditating, until all he could see and feel was this perfect night, and the man in his lap letting go like he hadn’t since he was four years old.

~*~

Dean woke up the next morning in his bed in the bunker, and for a second his heart fell like a rock.

Until he saw the note on his nightstand and remembered that this was now, and Castiel was not gone for a week or six … or half a year.

_Sam and I are driving to the store for bread, eggs and coffee. We will also get more beer._

Dean really hoped Castiel would retain his allergy to contractions for some time to come. 

~*~

The two of them were talking about a potential case when they came back, their arms full of groceries; Sam and Cas so absorbed in whatever the hell it was they were reading on Sam’s phone that they barely acknowledged him.

Dean decided to shake that shit up; reached in from where he was making a pot of coffee to plant a quick but firm kiss on Cas’ lips as Cas dropped his bags on the counter.

Castiel beamed. Sam went about his business like he hadn’t seen a thing.

“How’d you boys fare?” Dean asked.

“Fine,” Castiel said. “We bought hamburger for dinner. And Keiser rolls.”

“I hear I have a vacation day coming,” Sam waited until Castiel had left the room to say it.

“Yeah,” Dean said. “But don’t keep his ass away too long. Seems I need you both around.”

“Shocking,” Sam said. “Not.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written to a prompt on the 1_million_words comm on LJ. The [prompt was this picture, of a truly beautiful place](http://borda.deviantart.com/art/A-midsummer-night-s-dream-569375434)


End file.
